Business Mirror
Published on Thursday, 11 October 2012 10:00 Written by Manuel T. Cayon / Reporter
DAVAO CITY—The remaining power barges from Iloilo City have not yet been deployed to Mindanao pending the readiness of their mooring facilities, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Wednesday.
The government has committed the three barges in Iloilo City in western Visayas to Mindanao following the intense lobby by the government, political and business leaders to resolve the hours-long power blackouts hitting Mindanao, warning of economic collapse if unresolved for long.
Milfrance Capulong, NGCP corporate communications officer for Mindanao, said one of the power barges was already stationed off Tibungco coast, 20 kilometers northeast of downtown Davao City, to directly supply the power requirement of the industrial section of this city.
The two others have not been deployed although one of their identified mooring sites in General Santos City is nearly finished. The other mooring site is not yet identified.
Power Barges 101 and 102 were moored in Barrio Obrero, Iloilo, and the other one, Power Barge 103, was stationed off Estanza, also in Iloilo. Each of them has a capacity of 32 megawatts (MW).
Iloilo has stabilized its power supply since 2010, following the construction of the 164-MW Global Power coal plant, building a surplus of 81 MW.
Mindanao has two existing power barges, PB 117 moored off Barangay Santa Ana, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, and PB 118 off Barangay San Roque, Maco, Compostela Valley. They were acquired last year by the Therma Marine Inc., a unit of the Aboitiz Group of companies.
The two barges have a capacity of 100 MW each.
Capulong said the three Iloilo barges have not been sold yet to any private group and would still be operated by the National Power Corp.
Mindanao reels from a deficit of 120 MWs, churning only 974 MW from all government and private facilities. At peak periods, demand would reach 1,100 MW, she said.
At this deficit, many areas of Mindanao were already hit with an average of two-hour brownouts, but Capulong said this would likely become longer with the shutdown for repair of the Steag coal plant in Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao.
Shutdown of the first of its two units would be done from October 6 to November 4, putting off the grid a total of 105 MW. The second unit would be shut off from October 29 to November 10, with its 105 MW. The NGCP hoped the traditional low demand for power during this period would be tolerable.
The only aggravating circumstance would come from the hydroelectric power plants in the Agus River is expected to hit a big portion of Mindanao. source
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